Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications by William Penberthy; Microsoft Press

This book, Exam Ref 70-486: Developing ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications, does a good job of covering the objectives of the Microsoft exam 70-486. Passing the 70-486 exam earns you a Microsoft Specialist Certification besides being a credit towards the Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD) cred.

These exam preparation guides from Microsoft Press also serve another purpose. If your job requires you to be an expert in a Microsoft technology, you would first need to know the specific topics within that area which matter in the real-world. Whether or not you take a Microsoft certification exam, the objectives laid out for the exam give a clear learning plan and the Microsoft Press exam preparation guides follow a presentation pattern that makes learning and retention of the essentials effective.

The author covers a huge breadth of topics related to ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Applications in less than 400 pages while making the exam objectives appear less intimidating. The book is well-organized with Thought experiments and questions at the end of each sub-chapter to solve and reflect on what you've learnt. Of course, there are answers to compare yours against. However, as the author rightly admits, though this book covers every exam objective, it does not cover every exam question.

I found just a few instances where the writing appeared rushed or not adequately explained (as in page 199 -  "This code not only has the benefit of creating the script link for you but it also has the added benefit of generating the hashtag". What is a hashtag?) but overall the book was engaging.

This guide is not for absolute beginners. It is not a coding book, but more of a design and approach book. Both the exam and book expect interested candidates or readers to have two or more years developing MVC-based solutions. I feel, developers with at least six months of experience with ASP.NET MVC (ASP.NET MVC 1.0 came out in March 2009 and each new version has introduced significant changes) & prior experience building other types of web applications, can profit from the concepts in this book.

I received a ebook copy of this book via the O'Reilly Blogger Review Program.

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